


Heart on Your Sleeve

by Gabbalicous



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Lena Centric, ok slight canon convergence, written before 205 so canon until then
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2016-11-13
Packaged: 2018-08-30 16:56:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8541226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gabbalicous/pseuds/Gabbalicous
Summary: Lena was four when names formed on either wrist, written in dark ink. It was two weeks after she’d been adopted, and the marks added to the horror of everything changing and the peace of everything coming together that was rushing through her even as a child. Her adopted brother Lex had grinned without reading the names and given her a high five that somehow meant the world.Scrawled across her right wrist in a curling, slightly rushed font, was the name Kara Danvers.Canon Until 205





	

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the post http://karaxlucy.tumblr.com/post/152746695007/superslashco-chekhovsgum-cindymoon-im-so
> 
> Check out my blog karaxlucy.tumblr.com for more Supergirl
> 
> Enjoy!!

For most of her life, Lena’s soul marks were nothing less than very confusing.

Lena was four when names formed on either wrist, written in dark ink. It was two weeks after she’d been adopted, and the marks added to the horror of everything changing and the peace of everything coming together that was rushing through her even as a child. Her adopted brother Lex had grinned without reading the names and given her a high five that somehow meant the world.

Scrawled across her right wrist in a curling, slightly rushed font, was the name Kara Danvers. This was confusing, if only for the first 16 years of her life. For years she wondered why another girl's name would be on her wrist? She couldn’t be her soulmate? This Kara Danvers was destined to be her enemy, right? Then Lena was 17 and Rebecca Lewis took her to see a bad movie and they held hands and kissed softly at the end of the evening and everything became easier.

Well not everything.

Because of the other name on her other wrist in neat, simple writing.

Supergirl.

Who the hell was Supergirl?

Lena was fourteen when Superman revealed himself to the world. A surprise. An anomaly. A superhero. 

An alien.

Her brother was disgusted. Aliens running amok on their planet, in their  _ city _ , being revered on the news. He was five years older than her and he’d spent so much time taking care of her that his words and opinions often became her own. Her brother was  _ her  _ hero.

But the name on her wrist, Supergirl, was too similar. It couldn’t be a coincidence, and so the Lex’s opinion on aliens didn’t go near her. 

Still, it confused her.

Lena was fifteen when she began compulsively covering both her wrists with. She had never been very showy about it anyway, even in kindergarten when everyone was just happy to have names and too young and excitable not to tell them to everyone. She had been wearing school uniforms with long sleeves and it had never come up. Plus, as she had learned in stuffy prep schools, it wasn’t very polite to pry about other’s names, about who might be their soulmate and who might be their enemy. 

But high school was a bitch.

Really, she had expected different from the fancy boarding school, with such a prestigious reputation and marble hallways and top notch professors. Still, for every young, mannered prodigy (such as herself, Lena was proud to admit) in the school, there was the snotty rich child of a billionaire, who was floating through life on too much money and too few consequences.

It had been pretty early in the school year, a day far too warm for September, but there they were. Jackets and burgundy vests were shed during free period in the courtyard, pushing the limits of the school dress code. White collared shirt-sleeves had been flipped up to the elbow.

She had been sitting on the short stone wall that wrapped around the yard with a few other girls who she may have considered sort of friends at the time, but hadn’t spoken to since graduating. It was free period and a front row seat to the group of sophomore boys passing around a basketball, and Lena was trying to enjoy it as much as her friends.

One of the taller boys, whose name eluded her even back then, had slapped the ball out of one of his friends hands, twisting his hands to catch the ball as it fell. He was half turned around when his friend grinned and swore.

“Holy shit, man, wait,” It was like flipping a switch, just like that all the boys were out of basketball mode and walking over in a wave of crumpled shirts and khakis and white privilege, “Both your soul marks are guy’s names.”

The first boy’s face had become bright red, heads were turning, and Lena was trying not to squirm in her seat.

“No, man I-” He was embarrassed and angry and apparently the number of homophobes in the courtyard outweighed the number of decent human beings.

He was cut off, there was jeering and a couple of boys actually took a step back. The sight made her so upset, so angry, the kind of distraught that burned her chest like fire, and it she felt like she may throw up. But Lena didn’t say anything. Instead, she took the first chance she got to duck back to her dorm room without attracting attention, shame and fear and that anger still consuming her. And from that point on, she was never seen without watches and bracelets covering her wrists. 

Yeah, high school was a bitch.

Lena was twenty-seven when the CatCo Worldwide Media declared that the woman who saved a plane flying over National City was Supergirl. She was in metropolis at the time, trying to clean up the wreckage that Lex did to the company, to her life. Spending her time trying to piece things back together. Still, her breath caught in her throat when she saw the news, the top story that was spreading like a wild fire across the country.

_ Supergirl _ .

She was in Lex Corps Metropolis headquarters, exhausted from working late into the night every day that week. Then the tv playing softly in the background began showing a stream of camera-phone plane crash footage and as soon as she noticed what they were saying, the commentary suddenly seemed deafening, like it all there was in the word.

Supergirl.

She went through half a dozen different channels that night, watching the same report with the same name popping up on all of them.

It gave her chills. 

There she was, a woman Lena would either love or hate. Finally, one of the names on her wrist. There she was. 

She didn’t sleep much that night. She didn’t get much work done either.

Lena was twenty-eight when two reporters showed up at her office. It felt good, moving to National City. New city, new start, for her and the company. Plus, the economy put Metropolis’ to shame. And that was it. No other reasons for moving, nothing to do with the fact that it was the home to one Supergirl. Not at all.

She couldn’t even convince herself that was true, but she kept thinking it anyway.

She’d heard of Clark Kent, and she recognized his curly black hair and farm boy charm. She did not, however, know the blonde woman beside him, who had the same endearingly sweet expression and whose hands were fidgeting, fingers tapping relentlessly.

Clark had prepared for the interview well, he asked Lena question after question without hesitation or a frown, and as she responded in kind she began to wonder if the woman he brought with him would say anything at all.

“Lucky is Superman saving the day,” Lena said pleasantly. And it wasn’t a lie. 

“Not something one expects a Luthor to say,” Clark was just as fluid, looking only slightly surprised. The woman with him did blink in shock, and she felt a little pang of bitterness in her chest. But the smile stayed on her face.

“And Supergirl was there too,” Ah, so she did have a voice. It’s sweet and only half confident, really exactly what Lena expected, if her appearance was anything to go by. Still, there’s another, though different, pang in her chest, both at the mention of Supergirl and something else entirely. 

A beat, then she got her breath back, realizing time had been moving and she hadn’t, “And who are you, exactly?”

“Uh, I’m Kara Danvers, I’m not with the Daily Planet. I’m with Catco Magazine. Sort of.” There was hesitation in her voice, but once again it sounds sweet. 

Suddenly, Lena’s oh-so glad her back was to them, and even more glad that she didn’t drop the pitcher of water she’d been holding. Disbelief, surprise, terror, happiness, a dozen other emotions that passed through her chest passed over her face too. She did her best to rein in her expression quickly before turning around, thankful for the glass of water. Her throat was dry.

Kara Danvers. A name she’d known most of her life. A name she’d stared at on nights where she couldn’t sleep. A name she’d traced in the sand at beaches, trying to match the curling font on her wrist. A name that was always, always, in the back of her mind.

Lena shivered.

She didn’t see how she could ever be enemies with this woman, and she didn’t let herself even think about being her soulmate. She just couldn’t.

So she spoke fast for the rest of the interview, doing her best to keep her emotions in check and her eyes off Kara best she could. 

Then they were gone, and her heart was still pounding like a drum.

Kara kept stopping by in the days and weeks to come. Lena smiled and laughed and acted like she loved their visits because she really did. And she did her best not to think about her soulmark and what this, what Kara, meant.

There was something different about Kara. Not the way she was sweet, or kind, or that she was just a joy to be around. There was something just different. Good different, though.

Probably.

She said she hoped they talk again, then a few weeks later Lena told her assistant to let Kara up whenever she needs. It’s fast, and kind of scary. But Lena was 90% sure they’re soulmates and so she was willing to take the risk.

Still, there’s something. Something off. It hung in the air and all Lena wanted to do is figure out what it was.

It hit her when she was working late one night, as Kara walked in her door with a friendly smile and a take out bag.

“I was worried you didn’t eat, because, you know, the last two times I was here late you didn’t eat so,” She trailed off, drifting over to her desk.

Setting down a pen from her cramping hand, Lena glanced at the clock, “When did it get to be nine o’clock?”

A little laugh, “Exactly.”

When Lena looked up at her, she was smiling sweetly, so kindly that it made her heart leap and she reached out to touch Kara’s hand, “Thank you. You’re too good to me.” With a pang Lena remembered the last person who was this nice to her. He was in prison.

“You’re a good person,” Kara informed her doubtlessly. She twisted her hand to give Lena’s fingers a little squeeze before pulling her hand back, and that’s when she saw it. She tried not to gasp.

Kara’s wrist was clear, unmarked. 

A quick glance at the sleeve riding up on her other arm heeded the same result. Nothing.

That explained it all.

The whole time, Kara seemed to not notice her tiny advances, the little bit of emotion or insinuation Lena put in her words. And for as nervous and twitchy Kara could be, it hadn’t seemed like she knew they were soulmates, Lena had noticed subconsciously as she watched how oblivious the other woman had been. But now the thought filled her conscious brain.

Oh.

She didn’t have soulmarks.

Kara kept visiting though. Days and weeks passed and news stories and emergencies arose and sometimes Kara would come by for a favor. And even if the requests hadn’t been easy and simple and completely painless, Lena would have helped with them. Whenever the journalist showed up at her office her heart skipped a beat and she knew in the back of her head that she would probably have done anything Kara asked. It was a scary feeling.

Yet, not nearly as scary as the feeling she got whenever Kara just showed up for a visit. She brought food, she was always smiling, and she brightened Lena’s day with a half dozen words. It was like magic. And it made Lena want to be with her, want to hold her, want to make Kara smile too. It was an overwhelming thought, and always in her head. And that was scary. That was terrifying.

Lena had tried to hate Supergirl, out of a sense of duty. If she was falling for Kara, which wasn’t much of an if anymore, then that made Supergirl her enemy. So she decided she had to hate Supergirl.

Or course, that plan went out the window in about five seconds.

She asked Kara to introduce them. It had meant to be a hardass interrogation of the girl of steel; What did she know of Cadmus, the force terrorizing her city? Where did she get all the human assistance from? Could they trust the people she worked with? Could they trust Supergirl at all?

Then Supergirl was on her balcony. 

“So, I know I’m new to the city, and you’d expect me to be the first one to question you. But I don’t want that, I want to be able to trust you, and I want you to trust me,” Lena turned in her office chair, a bit dramatic, she had to admit, to see Supergirl there, taking her in. 

Supergirl was wary of her, but not unkind, her blonde hair slightly messy from flying. Supergirl was exactly as nearly everyone said, she was exactly as Lena expected. 

“So, you have questions for me. Ask away. But I do have one question for you first.”

“Of course.”

“How do  _ I  _ know what  _ your _ motives are? We are looking for trust.”

“I guess you don’t. But you can look at my actions, I haven’t given you a reason not to trust me.”

“I could say the same thing.”

This was an obvious response, and Lena should have seen it coming. But she didn’t and she was taken aback. “Touche. In that case, I guess there’s nothing I could ask you that you or anyone else couldn’t ask me.”

“I guess not.” There’s a hint of a smile, cool and oh- _ God _ charming for an arch nemesis.

The silence split as a siren broke out in the distance. “Is that your cue to go save the day?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Then until our next meeting.” A breath, then Lena added on a whim, “And Supergirl? Thank you, both for meeting me tonight and for all the good you’ve done for this city.”

That smile again. And suddenly the balcony was empty again in a whoosh and a gust of air.

So, Lena thought, letting out a sigh and turning back to her desk. It looked like the enemy thing wasn’t going to work out. At all.

Lena was two days away from turning twenty-nine when she was out on her balcony with Kara, over a week after Supergirl was standing there.

“I love National City. And you have such a nice view,” Kara smiled as she spoke, that alluring, beautiful grin that looked like it was made of pure happiness and sunshine.

In the darkness, the lights of the skyscrapers shined brightly, but Lena couldn’t take her eyes off the other woman's face, “Yeah, it’s great.”

“Lena,” Kara had turned to look at her. Her eyes were bright and the fact that their faces were only a few inches apart was suddenly painstakingly obvious.

“Yes?”

Slowly, Lena felt Kara’s hand brushing across her right wrist, circling her fingers over her own name with feather touches that set the whole world on fire.

Then they were both leaning in, and Kara’s lips were on hers. The kiss was soft and sweet and for a moment it was everything, flooding all Lena’s senses. She thought it was the best kiss ever.

“You knew?” When Lena pulled back, she became aware that there was a soft breeze blowing in from the city but all she could smell was Kara’s shampoo and that both of their hands were clasped together and she was half leaning against the railing, her knees weak from the kiss.

“Yeah. I, um,” Kara took a breath, smiled a little, and brought up their entwined right hands, “I don’t have soulmarks. But I saw yours a couple days ago, and it just felt right. I’m sorry if I-”

“It’s fine.” It was better than that, really. But that was all Lena could manage at the moment.

They pull together again, their lips meeting. And Lena was wrong. So wrong. 

The second kiss was better.


End file.
